Fellow Interviews

Echoing Green fellows are some of the smartest and wisest people we know.  Therefore, when we were seeking to publish answers to questions that emerging social change leaders frequently ask Echoing Green about the experience of applying for an Echoing Green fellowship and the life of a social entrepreneur, we turned our video camera on a group of our fellows for answers.  Unfortunately, our interview crew’s budget was extremely limited (in other words, we had no budget) and, therefore, we were only able to interview a small group of US based fellows.  We hope to be able to add interviews providing perspectives from some of our international fellows in the future.

We recommend that applicants scan through all the questions below.  To hear a fellow’s response, simply click on their photo.  We strongly urge applicants to heed the fellows’ advice provided in response to the final two questions where they share insights and tips on completing the Echoing Green application and the three most important things every emerging social entrepreneur should keep in mind.

Click here to learn more about our featured fellows. 

Click each question below to view Fellows' responses.

How did you come up with your idea?

What research did you do to better understand your field before launching your organization?

How did you make the case that your organization was needed?

Social challenges are highly complex with many different contributing factors.  How did you know you were attacking the right underlying problems?

How are you uniquely qualified to take on this challenge? 

Early on, you had no institutional history upon which to base your budget.  How did you determine how large your budget should be?  How did you create your first budget?

Who made up your circle of support that advised and coached you during the launch of your organization?

As a new organization with no real results or track record, how did you establish credibility in your field?

What was your biggest fear in starting your organization?

Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently if you were to do it all over again?

How has starting your own social change organization changed your life’s direction?

Advice to applicants from our fellows: 

What advice would you give to someone preparing to apply to Echoing Green?

What are the three most important pieces of advice you would give to potential social change leaders?